The project, estimated to cost $2.8 million, will provide structural upgrades for roads, bridges, staging areas and rail loading/offloading areas. The project is in support of the nation’s fifth busiest port for total import-export of Ro/Ro cargo and the third busiest port for the export of U.S.-made vehicles and machinery.

For the first eight months of fiscal year 2012, Colonel’s Island has handled 330,709 units, and 641,408 tons of autos and machinery, a 10 percent increase year over year.

Adding reefer racks

Foltz also updated the board on efforts to accommodate strong growth in the movement of refrigerated cargo.

The first half of a 20-unit expansion in refrigerated container racks is now in operation on Garden City Terminal. The other 10 will be in use next month. Each new rack will accommodate 24 refrigerated containers, for a total of 480 containers of added capacity. With these new units, the GPA will have a total of 64 refrigerated container racks in service, accommodating 1,536 boxes.

For every ten racks placed into service, the GPA saves about 540,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually, which otherwise would have been used to power diesel generators.

Adding the refrigerated racks — known in the industry as reefer racks — helps the Port of Savannah stay ahead of rising demand for frozen poultry and produce exports.

In February, the GPA handled 5,496 twenty-foot equivalent container units — or TEUs — of refrigerated goods, a 14.4 percent increase over the same month last year. For fiscal year 2012 to date, that number is 45,733, a 16.7 percent increase over the same period in FY2011.

Most of the refrigerated container business is in poultry, an $18.4 billion per year business in Georgia, according to the University of Georgia. Nearly 40 percent of America’s poultry exports move through the Port of Savannah, with Hong Kong, Angola, Georgia and China ranking as the top receiving nations.